Life Book Lesson 8

 

I confess that I'm a little behind with the Life Book lessons.  I was having a hard time getting my head around lesson 7...had a thought on how I wanted to approach the lesson and then things didn't turn out the way I wanted so this piece of background, shown above, sat on my studio table for a week.  When the lesson 8 class rolled around I realized that my background would be perfect for my boat!  I momentarily let go of #7 and fully embraced #8!

I'm a big fan of designer paper and love the idea of using collage to create a picture.  I was a bit rushed on this project, but it's something I've experimented with before and would like to explore in greater depth in the future.

My background was created by using a brayer to apply a few layers of acrylic paint.  Once the paint was dry, I added the fun clouds, which were created by hand cutting a cloud stencil and then using a make-up sponge and white acrylic paint to add the design.  I also added some white paint speckles all over the entire page.

For the water, I mixed Wendy Vecchi's Crackle Paste with some Tim Holtz Distress Paint and applied the mixture to the bottom of the page with a palette knife.  When it was dry I added a hint of aging around the edges, using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

  I hand cut a boat shape and sails from designer paper.  Added some more aging on the edges of each piece and glued my boat to the background.  The mast is a painted wood stick that I used to adhere all of my Tim Holtz rub ons.  I used a white gel pen to add a bit of design.

 I also added some stenciling, using black Archival Ink and a TCW stencil, to the background (before applying the boat), and added a bit more paint over the bottom of the boat so it was in the water instead of on top of the water.  This was a super easy project and "boat" loads of fun to create! **giggle**  The week 9 project looks promising so here's hoping I find some time to play this week!

Art Journaling - Wonderful Life

 

Hi folks and welcome to Monday!  I'm back with another journal page, created from the many store samples I made when offering a make 'n take a few months ago.  If you compare this page with the one I posted here, you'll notice that the backgrounds are similar...One to two colors with some black on the edges and simple stenciling in the background.  I've found that this is the best way to start a page...keep your backgrounds simple and then layer.  You'll never be disappointed!  (And if you are...just gesso!)  

The stamped design on the edges of this page, in black, are from Dina Wakley's Textures stamp set.  (See all product links at the end of my post).  The circles are just the top of a Distress Paint bottle, dipped in black paint and Dylusions White Linen ink spray.  Easy peasy!

My top layer involved a simple tag.  You can see that the tag already had some blue ink on it, probably from some other project I started a while ago, and I just used a Tim Layering Stencil to add some design to the tag background.  I then stamped a flower from a Wendy Vecchi stamp set on to the tag, which was colored with Copic Markers.  I stamped the same flower a second time, on plain cardstock, and colored again.  The second flower was then cut out and attached to the tag.  I ripped the bottom portion of the tag and then used a blending tool to age all of the edges before attaching to my art journal page.  The torn bottom piece of my tag was attached, using the Tiny Attacher, to the upper right hand side of the page.  All of the words and the butterfly are all part of a package of Remnant Rubs.  Super quick page to create...Enjoy and hope today's post has inspired you to create something new today!  (Product links below)

Supplies:

Strathmore Mixed Media Paper

Dylusions Ink Sprays

Textures Stamp Set

Botanical Remnant Rubs

Latticework Layering Stencil

I used an older Wendy stamp but a number of her new sets would work perfectly!

 

eclectic Paperie Belated Birthday Bash

 

Welcome to eclectic Paperie's Belated Birthday Bash!  Today we're celebrating the (belated) one year anniversary of the store's new ownership! It's been an amazing year, full of inspiring projects, wonderful classes, and many, many new products!!  eclectic Paperie wouldn't be where it is today without the ongoing support of our customers and as a BIG thank you you'll have an opportunity to lots of great prizes!  eclectic Paperie will be giving away the following prizes!  You have until midnight tomorrow (9/20) to comment.

 
A full set of Tim's NEW Distress Paints
6x6 Paper Pad Bundle
Dylusions Stencil Bundle
A set of NEW Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks
Crafter's Workshop Stencil Bundle

 
To be entered into the prize drawing, please be sure to comment on the eclectic Paperie blog (you're starting point) and on each of the eTeam blogs.  Check out all of the thumbnail links below to view the rest of the eTeam projects!  Enjoy the hop!

Here's a bit more about my project...

 My goal with my birthday bash project was to embrace all of the favorite products and techniques that I discovered this year.  Then create a project to celebrate each and everyone one of them!

 

My first three favorite products?  The 9x12 Dylusions Journal (ADORE it!), Wendy's white embossing paste (can't LIVE without it!), stencils (I LOVE each and every one of them!) and GESSO!!

I started by applying gesso to both of my pages.  Once the gesso was dry I used the Dots & Dashes stencil and white embossing paste to both pages.

 

My next favorite product?  Paint!  My Adirondack Paint Dabbers have never seen so much action!  And my all time fav, newly discovered artists...Wendy Vecchi, Dina Wakley, and Donna Downey!  Seriously love each and every project from both of these wonderful and extremely talented ladies!

So...my next step was to apply a combination of dark and light blue paint to both pages...wait for it to dry...

 

Umm...and then I totally got engrossed in what I was doing and completely forgot to take any photos!  Yikes!  I actually saw a large painting at a furniture store that I visited a few months ago.  The painting was of these large flowers and I loved it so I snapped a photo.  That photo was the inspiration for this big 'ol flowers (along with Donna Downey's always beautiful flowers).  Now, when I tell you that when I started these flowers were about as ugly as could be...I believe my son said they looked like "alien heads!"  LOL!  But I just kept working on them...adding more and more paint, shadows, highlights...I wouldn't say this is ready for the art gallery but when I finally backed away from what I had painted...I was happy!  They were flowers!!  Just keep working...keep trying...keep experimenting...you will "get it!"

 Once my flowers were finished and dry, I used some white paint and the Cursive Alphabet stencil to add some text ('cause I can't live without text!) to each of the large flowers.  Once this step was finished, I still felt like something was missing...like in that lower left hand corner.  so I grabbed some left over Remnant Rubs and went to town!  Love all the words and numbers scattered over the page.  It was the perfect touch!
 

And then I just needed to add a sentiment...a great saying from Tim...and some hot pink paint splots because every girl needs a little hot pink in their life!  And now...take some time to check out the amazing blog hop list, below, that we have lined up for you today!  We have the eTeam, past eTeam members, previous guest designers, and even some special guests (aka Wendy Vecchi!!) joining us today...It's going to be an amazing hop!  Enjoy!!

 

When Was the Last Time

Hi gang!  Sorry I've been MIA again!  Life and the running of a business sure does get in the way of my creative time!!  However, I did manage to sneak into the studio this week to create a short video on using Remnant Rubs!  You can check out the video here and I'll list the products I used on this project below!  Enjoy!

 

Supply List:

Remnant Rubs

Distress Stains

Distress Ink

Petaloo Flowers

Manila Tags

Way with Words Stamp Set